Time is one of the most precious things we have. When we’re young, time seems abundant and endless. As we begin to mature and get older, however, we often become aware of our limited amount of time on Earth. We don’t know how much time we’ll each have, and as a result, we tend to acknowledge, appreciate and use time differently as we age. But how one spends their time lays the foundation for the lives we create while we are here.

The United States Department of Labor released its annual American Time Survey last Thursday about how Americans spent their time in 2012.

The survey included employed and unemployed Americans, and its purpose is to measure the amount of time people spend doing various activities during a typical day.

For example, due to the high-unemployment rate, the average person spent 2 hours and 50 minutes a day watching TV in 2012, which was the second straight yearly increase from 2010, when the average was 2 hours and 44 minutes. Surprising? Maybe not.

Another activity we spend a great deal of our time doing is sleeping. We spent an average of 8 hours and 44 minutes asleep in 2012 as opposed to 8 hours and 40 minutes in 2010. It appears that because we’re working less as a population, we’re both sleeping and watching television more each year.

Another interesting, but not surprising statistic had to do with the time we spent reading for personal interests versus the time spent on the computer per weekend day. As you can imagine, age played a key role. Those who were 75 and older averaged about 1 hour reading per weekend day and 20 minutes playing games or using the computer. Those 15 to 19 years old averaged about 7 minutes of personal reading and 1 hour playing games or using the computer. Frankly, I was a bit surprised that the 15 to 19 year olds weren’t spending more time on the computer during their weekend days.

I hope this got you thinking about how you spend your time. Time is a precious, limited gift and we should all be more mindful of how we use it.

As French philosopher Jean De La Bruyere once wrote, “Those who make the worse use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.”